Internal conflict in Peru
Peruball |causes = ' Historical: ' * Completion of the Ochenio by Manuel Odría. * Persecution and repression of apristas and communists in several non-consecutive periods. * Period of marginalization of the poorest and most popular sectors of the country. * Degradation and loss of popularity of the Peruvian military regime. ** Failure of the agrarian reform plan imposed by Juan Velasco Alvarado. ** Coup d'etat caused by Francisco Morales Bermúdez. ** Rightist tendency during the Morales Bermúdez government. * Restart of the democracy of liberal tendency with the non-consecutive reelection of Fernando Belaúnde Terry. * Hard reprisals against the subversives and the general population especially during the regimes of Alberto Fujimori and Alan García. ' Specific: ' * Partition of the PCP in prosovietics and promaoists. ** Promaoists found Red Homeland and Red Flag *** Several members of the Red Flag leave the party to form the Shining Path. * Secession of Apra Rebelde of the homonymous party. * Increase in popularity of socialist parties. * Influence of the Latin American revolutions in the popular sectors. ** Emergence of guerrillas that promoted armed struggle. Appearance of the ELN and subsequent fall. ** Appearance of Peru MIR flag.jpg MIR and subsequent fall. *** The MIR is rebuilt as the MRTA. * Indifference to guerrilla acts by the governments of Francisco Morales Bermúdez and later by Fernando Belaúnde Terry. Shining Path and MRTA decision to start the people's war - both groups separately. Incipient increase in drug trafficking in the high jungle areas |status = Ongoing |combatant1 = Peruball Peruvian Armed Forces Rondas campesinas Izquierda Unida Supported by: USAball Spainball Chinaball (since 1989) Colombiaball Cubaball Russiaball |combatant2 = Shining Path People’s Guerilla Army MOVADEFball FUDEPP Drug Dealers Supported by: CGSMball RIMball Rondas Campesinas (sometimes, 1980-1983) FARCball |commander1 = Francisco Morales Bermúdez (1975-1980) Fernando Belaúnde Terry (1980-1985) Alan Garcia (1985-1990) Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) |commander2 = Comrade José Comrade Raúl Abimael Guzmán Óscar Ramírez Comrade Artemio Comrade Alipio Comrade Mono |strength1 = 30,000 soldiers |strength2 = 15,000 (peak) |notes = 69,280 killed by the conflict (until 2002) |combatant3 = MRTA (1982-1997) Drug dealers (commonly Los Cafeteros) Mafias Supported by: Cubaball (denied by the government) Libyan Arab Jamahiriyaball (until 2011) FARCball |commander3 = Victor Polay Néstor Cerpa Cartolini |strength3 = 150 militants (1990) 20 militants (1997) |result = * Partial victory of Peru. *** Investigations of enforced disappearances throughout the country. ** Fall of the MRTA - flight of several of its members to Venezuela. *** Capture of Victor Polay Campos. ** Weakening of the Shining Path and subsequent marginalization of the VRAEM. *** Capture of Abimael Guzmán Reynoso *** Capture of Oscar Ramírez Durand *** Capture of Florindo Flores Hala. *** Shining Path allies with drug trafficking. *** Shining Path members create the MOVADEF. *** MOVADEF members refound the movement creating the FUDEPP. *** Beginning of the narcoterrorist insurgency.|territory = Areas partially controlled by the subversives in the center and south of the country - with their alliance with drug trafficking, they would consolidate an area known as the '' vraem '' - and areas controlled by the government mostly on the coast and urban areas of the country.}} The internal conflict in Peru is an ongoing armed conflict between the Government of Peru, the Communist Party of Peru (also known as Shining Path) and the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. The conflict began on May 17, 1980. It is estimated that there have been nearly 70,000 deaths, making it the bloodiest war in Peruvian history, since the European colonization of the country. The high death toll includes many civilian casualties, due to deliberate targeting by many factions. Since 2000, the number of deaths has dropped significantly and recently the conflict has become dormant. There were low-level resurgences of violence in 2002 and 2014 when conflict erupted between the Peruball's Army and Guerrilla remnants in the VRAEM region. The conflict has lasted for over 39 years, making it the second longest internal conflict in the history of Latin America, after the Colombian Conflict. Background Prior to the conflict, Peruball had undergone a series of coups with frequent switches between political parties and ideologies. On October 2, 1968, General Juan Velasco Alvarado staged a military coup and became Peruball's 56th president under the administration of the Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces, left-leaning military dictatorship. Following a period of widespread poverty and unemployment, Velasco himself was overthrown in a bloodless military coup on August 29, 1975. He was replaced by Francisco Morales Bermúdez as Peruball. Morales announced that his rule would provide a "Second Phase" to the previous administration, which would bring political and economic reforms. However, he was unsuccessful in delivering these promises, and in 1978, a Constitutional Assembly was created to replace Peruball's 1933 Constitution. Morales then proclaimed that national elections would be held by 1980. Elections were held for the Constituent Assembly on June 18, 1978, whilst martial law was imposed on January 6, 1979. The Assembly approved the new constitution in July 1979. On May 18, 1980, Fernando Belaunda Terry was elected president. Between February 1966 and July 1980 approximately 500 people died of political violence. Many affiliated with Peruball's Communist Party had opposed the creation of the new constitution and formed the extremist organization known as Shining Pathball. This ultimately led to the emergence of internal conflict, with the first attacks taking place a day before the elections. Despite this, national elections continued and Fernando Belaúnde Terry was elected as the 58th President of Peruball in 1980. Terry had already served as the country's 55th president prior to Velasco's coup in 1968. Shining Pathball During the governments of Velasco and Morales, Shining Pathball had been organized as a Maoist political group formed in 1970 by Abimael Guzmán, a communist professor of philosophy at the San Cristóbal of Huamanga University. Guzmán had been inspired by the Cultural Revolution which he had witnessed first-hand during a trip to Chinaball. Shining Pathball's members engaged in street fights with members of other political groups and painted graffiti encouraging an "armed struggle" against Peruball. In June 1979, demonstrations for free education were severely repressed by the army: 18 people were killed according to official figures, but non-governmental estimates suggest several dozen deaths. This event led to a radicalization of political protests in the countryside and the outbreak of Shining Pathball's terrorist actions. Timeline Outbreak of hostilities (1980-1982) When Peruball's military government allowed elections for the first time in 1980, Shining Pathball was one of the few leftist political groups that declined to take part. They opted instead to launch guerrilla warfare actions against the state in the province of Ayacuchoball. On May 17, 1980—the eve of the presidential elections—members of Shining Pathball burned ballot boxes in the town of Chuschiball, Ayacucho. The perpetrators were quickly caught and additional ballots were brought in to replace the burned ballots; the elections proceeded without any further incidents. The incident received very little attention in the Peruball's press. Shining Pathball opted to fight in the style taught by Mao Zedong. They would open up "guerrilla zones" in which their guerrillas could operate and drive government forces out of these zones to create "liberated zones". These zones would then be used to support new guerrilla zones until the entire country was essentially a unified "liberated zone". There is some disagreement among scholars about the extent of Maoist influence on Shining Pathball, but the majority of scholars consider Shining Pathball to be a violent Maoist organization. One of the factors contributing to support for this view among scholars is that Shining Pathball's economic and political base were located primarily in rural areas and they sought to build up their influence in these areas. On December 3, 1982, Shining Pathball officially formed an armed wing known as the "People's Guerrilla Army". Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movementball In 1982, Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movementball (MRTAball) launched its own guerrilla against the Peruball's state. The group had been formed by remnants of the Movement of the Revolutionary Leftandball identified with Castroite guerrilla movements in other parts of Latin America. The MRTAball used techniques that were more traditional to Latin American leftist organizations, like wearing uniforms, claiming to fight for true democracy, and accusations of human rights abuses by the state; in contrast, Shining Pathball did not wear uniforms and did not care for democratic processes. During the conflict, MRTAball and Shining Pathball engaged in combat with each other. MRTAball only played a small part in the overall conflict, being declared by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to have been responsible for 1.5 percent of casualties accumulated throughout the conflict. At its height, MRTAball was believed to have consisted of only a few hundred members. Government response (1981) Gradually, Shining Pathball committed more and more violent attacks on the National Police of Peru until the Lima-based government could no longer ignore the growing crisis. In 1981, President Fernando Belaúnde Terry declared a state of emergency and ordered that the Peruvian Armed Forces fight Shining Pathball. Constitutional rights were suspended for 60 days in the Huamangaball, Huantaball, Cangalloball, La Marball, and the Víctor Fajardoball Provinces. Later, the Armed Forces created the Ayacucho Emergency Zone, where military law superseded civilian law.[citation needed] The military committed many human right violations in the area where it had political control, including the infamous Accomarca massacre. Scores of peasant farmers were massacred by the armed forces. A special US-trained "counter terrorist" police battalion is known as the "Sinchis" became notorious in the 1980s for their violations of human rights. Shining Pathball's reaction to Peruball's government's use of the military in the conflict was to increase violent warfare in the countryside. Shining Pathball attacked police officers, soldiers, and civilians that it considered being "class enemies", often using gruesome methods of killing their victims. These killings, along with Shining Pathball's disrespect for the culture of indigenous peasants, turned many civilians in the Sierra away from the group. Shining Path massacres (1982-1989) Faced with a hostile population, Shining Pathball's guerrilla campaigns began to falter. In some areas, fearful, well-off peasants formed anti-Shining Path patrols called rondas. They were generally poorly equipped despite donations of guns from the armed forces. Nevertheless, Shining Path guerrillas were attacked by the rondas. The first reported attack was near Huataball in January 1983, where some rondas killed 13 guerrillas. In February in Sacsamarcaball, rondas stabbed and killed the Shining Pathball commanders of that area. In March 1983, rondas brutally killed Olegario Curitomay, one of the commanders of the town of Lucanamarcaball. They took him to the town square, stoned him, stabbed him, set him on fire, and finally shot him. Shining Pathball responded by entering the province of Huancasancosball and the towns of Yanaccollpaball, Ataccaraball, Llacchuaball, Muylacruzball, and Lucanamarcaball, where they killed 69 people. Other similar incidents followed, such as ones in Hauylloball, Tambo Districtball, and La Mar Provinceball. In the Ayacucho Department, Shining Pathball killed 47 peasants. Additional massacres by Shining Pathball occurred, such as one in Marcasball on August 29, 1985. Shining Pathball, like the government, filled its ranks by conscription. Thousands of child soldiers were recruited by Shining Pathball. Administration of Alberto Fujimori (1990–2000) and decline Under the administration of Alberto Fujimori the state started its widespread use of intelligence agencies in its fight against Shining Pathball. Some atrocities were committed by the National Intelligence Service, notably the La Cantuta massacre, the Barrios Altos massacre and the Santa massacre. On April 5, 1992, Fujimori dissolved the Congress of Peruball and abolished the Constitution, initiating the Peruvian Constitutional Crisis of 1992. The reason for these actions was that Congress was slow to pass anti-terrorism legislation. Fujimori set up military courts to try suspected members of the Shining Pathball and MRTA and ordered that an "iron fist" approach be used. Fujimori also announced that Peruball would no longer be under the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. As Shining Pathball began to lose ground in the Andes to the Peruball and the rondas, it decided to speed up its overall strategic plan. Shining Pathball declared that it had reached "strategic equilibrium" and was ready to begin its final assault on the cities of . In 1992, Shining Pathball set off a powerful bomb in the Miraflores District of Limaball in what became known as the Tarata bombing. This was part of a larger bombing campaign to follow suit in Limaball. On September 12, 1992, Peruvian police captured Guzmán and several Shining Pathball leaders in an apartment above a dance studio in the Surquillo district of Limaball. The police had been monitoring the apartment, as a number of suspected Shining Pathball militants had visited it. An inspection of the garbage of the apartment produced empty tubes of a skin cream used to treat psoriasis, a condition that Guzmán was known to have. Shortly after the raid that captured Guzmán, most of the remaining Shining Pathball leadership fell as well. At the same time, Shining Pathball suffered embarrassing military defeats to peasant self-defense organizations – supposedly its social base – and the organization fractured into splinter groups. Guzmán's role as the leader of Shining Pathball was taken over by Óscar Ramírez, who himself was captured by Peruvian authorities in 1999. After Ramírez's capture, the group splintered, guerrilla activity diminished sharply and previous conditions returned to the areas where the Shining Pathball had been active. Some Shining Pathball and MRTAball remnants managed to stage minor scale attacks, such as the January 1993 wave of attacks and political assassinations that occurred in the run-up to the municipal elections, which also targeted US interests; these included the bombing of two Coca-Cola plants on January 22 (by Shining Pathball); the RPG attack against the USIS Binational Center on January 16; the bombing of a KFC restaurant on January 21 (both by MRTAball) and the car-bombing of the Peruvian headquarters of IBM on January 28 (by Shining Pathball). On July 27, 1993, Shining Path militants drove a car bomb into the USAball Embassy in Limaball, which left extensive damage on the complex (worth some US$250,000) and nearby buildings. Shining Pathball was confined to their former headquarters in Peruball's jungle and continued smaller attacks against the military, like the one that occurred on October 2, 1999, when a Peruvian Army helicopter was shot down by SPball guerrillas near Satipoball (killing 5) and stealing a PKM machine gun which was reportedly used in another attack against an Mi-17 in July 2003. Despite Shining Pathball being mostly defeated, more that 25% of Peru's national territory remained under a state of emergency until early 2000. Reemergence in the 21st Century (2002–present) Over the last two decades, there have been a number of incidents relating to internal conflict within Peruball. On March 20, 2002, a car bomb exploded at "El Polo," a mall in a wealthy district of Limaball near USAball's embassy. On June 9, 2003, a Shining Pathball group attacked a camp in Ayacucho, and took 68 employees of the Argentine company Techint and three police guards hostage. The hostages worked at the Camisea gas pipeline project that takes natural gas from Cuzcoball to Limaball. According to sources from Peruball's Interior Ministry, the hostage-takers asked for a sizable ransom to free the hostages. Two days later, after a rapid military response, the hostage-takers abandoned the hostages. According to some sources, the company paid the ransom. During 2015, the USAball Treasury declared Shining Pathball a narco-terrorist organization engaged in the taxing of production, processing, and transport, of cocaine. The allegations of Shining Pathball drug trafficking have been made by Peruball's government before the USAball' decree. This decree will freeze all Shining Pathball financial assets in the United States. US treasury official John Smith states the decree would help "the government of Peru's efforts to actively combat the group". Timeline * October 13, 2006 – Guzmán was sentenced to life in prison for terrorism. * May 22, 2007 – Peruvian police arrested 2 SPball members in the town of Churcampaball, Huancavelicaball. * May 27, 2007, the 27th anniversary of the Shining Pathball's first attack against Peruball, a homemade bomb in a backpack was set off in a market in the southern Peruvian city of Juliaca, killing six and wounding 48. Because of the timing of the attack, Shining Pathball is suspected by the Peruvian authorities of holding responsibility. * September 20, 2007 – Police arrested 3 SPball insurgents in the city of Huancayo, Junín province. * March 25, 2008 – Shining Pathball rebels killed a police officer and wounded 11, while they were performing patrol duty. * October 15, 2008 – Shining Pathball militants attacked an army patrol, killing 2 and wounding 5. * October 20, 2008 – a group of 30 to 50 Shining Pathball insurgents entered a camp set up by the mining company Doe Run. After delivering a short Maoist propaganda speech, before leaving, the militants stole communications equipment and food. * October 2008 – in Huancavelicaball, the senderistas engaged military and civil convoy with explosives and firearms, demonstrating their continued ability to strike and inflict casualties on easy targets. The clash resulted in the death of 12 soldiers and two to seven civilians. * April 9, 2009 – Shining Pathball ambushed and killed 13 Peruvian soldiers in the Apurímac and Ene river valleys in Ayacuchoball, said Peruvian minister of Defense, Antero Flores-Aráoz. * August 26, 2009 – Two soldiers were killed in two separate incidents outside San Antonio de Carrizales, in the Huancayo Province. * August 31, 2009 – 3 soldiers were wounded in an encounter with SLball rebels, in the San Antonio de Carrizales, in the Huancayo Province. * September 2, 2009 – Shining Pathball militants shot down a Peruvian Air Force MI-17 helicopter, later killing the two pilots with small arms fire. * February 12, 2012 – Comrade Artemio was captured by a combined force of the Peruvian Army and the Police. President Ollanta Humala said that he would now step up the fight against the other remaining band of Shining Pathball rebels in the Ene-Apurímac valley. * April 14, 2012 – A helicopter crashed after a SPball sniper killed a police helicopter pilot during a hostage rescue operation in the Peruvian Amazon, 4 soldiers were also wounded in the crash. The operation started when SPball took up to 40 hostages, demanding a $10 million ransom, 1500 soldiers were deployed into the abduction area in order to participate in the operation. * April 27, 2012 – Senderista rebels killed 3 soldiers and wounded 2 others in the aftermath of an ambush. * May 2012 – It was reported that since 2008, 71 security forces personnel had been killed and 59 wounded by Shining Pathball ambushes in the VRAE region. * August 11, 2013 – The Peruvian army killed three Shining Path rebels, including senior commander Comrade Alipio. * November 8, 2013 – General Cesar Diaz was removed from the position of Chief of the Joint Command of Special Operations and the Intelligence Command in the VRAEM. The decision came in the aftermath of the 16 October aerial bombing of Mazangaroball which killed one civilian and injured 4 others. * February 2014 – The Shining Pathball were reported to have attacked a Transportadora de Gas del Peru natural gas work camp in Peruball's Cuzcoball region. * April 10, 2014 – Peruvian authorities arrested 24 people on charges of SPball affiliation. * June 18, 2014 – Security forces killed 3 and injured 1 Shining Path insurgents during an apartment raid in the Echarate region. * October 5, 2014 – 2 policemen were killed and at least 5 injured when they were attacked by SPball rebels in the VRAEM region. * October 14, 2014 – One soldier was killed and 4 injured in the aftermath of an ambush conducted between Chalhuamayoball and the town of San Franciscoball, VRAEM. A civilian was also injured in the attack. * December 17, 2014 – The garrison of the Llochegua army base, in Huantaball, successfully repelled a Shining Path attack, one soldier was wounded following the skirmish. * April 9, 2016 – Two soldiers and one civilian were killed, and 6 other soldiers were injured when guerrillas believed to be part of Shining Pathball, hidden in the jungles of the Juninball attacked a truck carrying soldiers to protect voting stations in Limaball, as Presidential Elections were to be held the following day. * August 2, 2016 – The Joint Command of the Armed Forces reported that yesterday at 11 pm suspected terrorists attacked a military base in the mazamari district, in the Valley of the Apurimac River, Ene, and Mantaro (abbreviated commonly VRAEM), leaving the balance of a wounded soldier. * September 27, 2016 – At least three people, one soldier, and two civilians were injured in a shooting, there is a detainee in Huancavelicaball. * December 13, 2016 – A policeman died during an operation in the town of Apachitaball in Vraem region. * December 14, 2016 – Two policemen (another was seriously injured) and four narco-terrorists died after a clash in the Vraem region, known for hosting remnants of Shining Pathball and the high traffic of drugs. * March 12, 2017 – Militants of Shining Pathball attacked a helicopter of the armed forces of Peru, the latter responded to the attack leaving as balance several wounded attackers. * March 18, 2017 – Three policemen were killed and another injured during an ambush in Ayacuchoball. * May 31, 2017 – According to Channel N, it would be a narco-terrorist attack in which two members of the National Police of Peru were shot dead in the VRAEM region.73 * July 21, 2017 – Llochegua Clashes: An armed confrontation and attempted rescue rescued 10 policemen and a prosecutor injured in Llochegua, in Ayacuchoball. A leader of a local armed group was arrested in the operation. * August 1, 2017 – A Peruvian soldier died and seven other rebels were wounded in an ambush in a clash between the army and remnants of Shining Pathball. In other incident in the same district at least one soldier was killed and other three were wounded.76 * September 6, 2017 – At least three police were shot dead by suspected militants at approximately 6 p.m. in the province of Churcampa, Huancavelicaball. * September 22, 2017 – ** A military patrol and a group of Sendero Luminosoball remnants clashed Thursday in a sector of the Vraem in Ayacuchoball without causing injuries, reported the Joint Command of the Armed Forces. ** A policeman was killed and four injured. A guide were also injured and one missing by the 116 of the Inter-Oceanic road, 15 minutes by motorcycle, in the section of Puerto Maldonadoball, Madre de Diosball. * June 7, 2018 - Four policemen were killed in an ambush by terrorists in the Anco district of Churcampa province in the Huancavelicaball. * June 11, 2018 - A group of terrorists attacked a military base in the town of Mazángaro in the province of Satipoball. Six soldiers were injured in the shooting. 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